EP.39 The Way Back. (2)
The Way Back (2)
Whoosh—
It's going to rain.
The rain pouring down from the sky is extremely fierce and rough.
The moon had long been hidden by dark clouds, and the rain felt unbearably heavy.
I ran madly down the dark forest path, devoid of any light.
No matter how I focused my energy, my feet felt heavy.
I ran for a while, thinking.
How long have I been running?
How much time has passed?
How much, how much
.
‘How long have I held on
?’
My leg, cut and torn by a blade, screams in pain.
It yells at me to stop, to give up, but I didn’t.
No, I couldn’t.
Something warm was flowing down my hand.
Is it rain?
I foolishly hoped it was, but it wasn’t.
It was too warm to be the cold rain.
I clenched my teeth at the sensation. I couldn’t stop.
[Pull yourself together!]
I shouted, but there was no response from behind.
Because of this, I focused even more energy into my feet.
Time was running out. I could feel more blood on my hands than before.
[Shit
 Pull yourself together!]
I shouted in frustration, but the result was the same.
So I put more strength into the hand that was carrying the person.
As if determined not to let go.
Why am I suffering so much for this foolish person? This thought kept circling in my mind.
Why didn’t I leave this wretched woman behind?
She was clearly going to be a burden, so why did I carry her and run?
Why do I have to keep running, risking my life, without abandoning her?
I had no idea.
I just kept running.
The blood vessels in my eyes were all burst.
The pain in my lower abdomen signaled that my dantian was completely drained.
My heart was pounding wildly.
At that moment, I felt something draining from my body.
It was because I had used up my energy and even touched my innate qi. The sensation of my energy being drained made my lips tremble.
[...This is fucking ridiculous.]
The breathing behind me grew fainter.
My heartbeat grew louder, but the heartbeat I felt from behind grew slower.
The sound of pursuit had disappeared, but I couldn’t stop running.
I wasn’t sure if I had truly escaped from that monster.
Where am I? Where am I now?
The sensation in my legs had long since disappeared.
In the distance, I saw a cave between the forest paths.
There was no time to hesitate, so I immediately ran into the cave, breaking through the rain.
It was a place where I couldn’t see the surroundings clearly.
But I had no other choice.
When I went deep enough, the sound of the rain grew distant, and only silence remained in the cave.
I led my exhausted body to a relatively wide area in the cave.
As soon as I released the energy surrounding my body, I collapsed.
Every bone in my body screamed in pain, but I first laid the person I was carrying flat on the ground.
Blood was flowing from the long sword wound on her upper body.
She was barely breathing, and even that was faint.
With my trembling hands, I placed them on the injured person and infused my energy.
Because my dantian was empty, the energy was close to innate, but I had no time to hesitate.
[Shit
 Why isn’t the bleeding stopping
?]
As I infused the energy, the wound continued to bleed.
Suddenly, my body swayed.
It was because I had used too much energy in a short time.
[What the hell
]
Someone weakly grabbed my hand.
[Stop
 please
]
It was a voice with almost no life.
I spoke with frustration at this wretched situation.
[Stop? What do you mean stop! Just shut up and stay still!]
[...If we keep this up... you’ll die... I’m... fine...]
[Don’t be ridiculous. Who asked you to do something you weren’t asked to do! Because of your reckless actions, I’m doing this, so I’ll do as I please.]
So please, just shut up and try to survive.
I couldn’t say the last part because she had already lost consciousness again.
I had to survive.
I couldn’t die in a place like this.
I had to survive.
I couldn’t let her die in a place like this.
[What the hell do I do
 Shit
]
If I infused more energy, I would lose consciousness.
Then she would die.
I gritted my teeth and tried to hold on, but my heart, squeezed tight, wouldn’t wait.
[Please
 please
!]
It was desperate, almost pleading.
This wretched world had never offered me a helping hand.
Even now, pushed to the edge of a cliff, it was the same.
[Just once
 Just once, can you help me?]
If you’ve been cruel until now, can you help me just once?
No matter how unjust, how could you never help me even once?
The sky wouldn’t answer my pleas.
They were never on my side.
How long had I been like this? How much of my life was left?
Just as I was growing weary.
[Truly despicable.]
The energy I was infusing was cut off.
Not by my will, but by someone else’s.
My whole body stiffened at the short words from behind.
When did
?
There was only one entrance to the cave.
No matter how much energy I was pouring in, how could I not have sensed anyone’s presence?
[...This wasn’t much fun. It was a boring game of hide and seek.]
I felt as if I couldn’t breathe.
Just by standing there, the monster made every muscle in my body scream and the air around me disappear.
I turned my trembling head to look behind me.
Despair (甶望).
What I saw was despair.
[There’s nothing as despicable as a human chasing after futile hope.]
[What the hell are you, kid?]
[Your mouth is dirtier than I expected.]
He was a monster. There was no other way to describe him.
He was laughing at us.
More accurately, he was laughing at me.
I couldn’t see his face or hear his voice, but I somehow knew he was laughing.
[This is quite amusing. Even in this state, you can still show your fangs to me.]
The dark cave suddenly became bright.
No, it wasn’t getting brighter.
A greater darkness had consumed everything, leaving no trace of darkness around.
[...Shit.]
I spat out a curse without realizing it.
I tried to ignore the fear, but it was clearly seeping into my body.
This was not something a human could do.
The monster looked at my trembling body and spoke.
[Do you know who I am?]
In the distorted space of the cave, a black wind from the fluttering black robe swallowed the little hope I had left.
It even knocked down the little courage I had mustered.
One step.
Just one step the monster took towards me made me realize.
He was a being who could take everything from me with a single gesture if he so desired.
Yet he was showing mercy out of mere interest.
[I am.]
The slow, calm voice made me feel as if my heart had stopped.
The spirit I had barely maintained began to waver.
This must have been the moment.
[The Heavenly Demon (怩魔).]
The moment my world stopped.
******************
I carried Weixuela and ran for about half an hour.
Thanks to the increased energy, I could run much faster even with a person on my back.
“Is it a bit fast? Are you okay?”
I asked Weixuela, who had her face buried in my back.
There was no response.
“...Did you not hear me?”
Thinking she didn’t hear me, I repeated the question, but there was still no response.
Feeling something was wrong, I stopped running for a moment.
Maybe she couldn’t hear me because of the wind.
“Is it fast
?”
Rumble.
“...Huh?”
When I stopped running, I heard a subtle sound from behind.
Turning my head slightly, I saw that Weixuela was snoring softly.
It turned out she wasn’t ignoring me; she was asleep.
“...You must have been quite comfortable, huh?”
I teased, but Weixuela was too busy snoring to respond.
I considered waking her up out of annoyance but decided to just laugh and keep moving.
After running for so long, I still had plenty of energy left.
Surprisingly, it was even replenishing in the middle.
I had heard that sects of the Daoist school, which use dense and clear energy, possessed such energy.
It was a sensation that didn’t suit me, who was far from having innate or Daoist energy.
‘But it’s not bad, right?’
Good is good, and honestly, as long as it wasn’t demonic energy, I was fine with anything.
I gradually increased my speed.
I had already passed the Tang family compound.
Since I had no more business there, it was more important to get away quickly.
Ah... On the day of the Tang Bingzhanhui, the head of the Tang family would come out personally, so I should have shown my face.
But when an opportunity to escape presented itself, I took it.
I would probably get a scolding from the chief steward for not showing up.
‘But I got what I could get.’
I managed to prevent the Jixian Sect from obtaining the Bihao.
If I had to guess, the qi that the Jixian Sect leader would have obtained was probably the pearl the snake would spit out.
I wasn’t sure if the energy from the pearl could reach the Hua Jing stage, but I suspected it was that.
Considering that, even getting just half a jia of energy from what seemed like three or four jia was quite impressive.
Of course, I was grateful for even that.
‘Better than getting nothing, right?’
The Ya Ming Zhu
 Ah, let’s not think about that.
Thinking about the Ya Ming Zhu made my energy waver. If I thought more, I might even go into a state of madness.
I could see a village in the distance.
From here, I should walk, so I stopped and put Weixuela down.
“Wake up, we’re here.”
“Mm
?”
Weixuela rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, trying to wake up.
I gave her a light slap to help her wake up faster.
“Ouch!”
The sudden slap made Weixuela’s eyes snap open.
“A servant snoring on their master’s back!?”
“Snoring, snoring
!?”
Weixuela was startled by my comment about snoring.
I smiled at her reaction.
“You were snoring so loudly. Anyone would think a tiger was roaring.”
“L, L, Liar!”
“I swear on the heavens and the earth, I’m telling the truth.”
Of course, she didn’t snore like a tiger.
But swearing on the heavens made Weixuela’s face turn pale.
I could hear her muttering, “No, no, it can’t be
 it can’t be
” as she followed me.
Who would let a servant sleep on their back?
I led the half-conscious Weixuela into the village.
I needed to find someone from the Gou family.
It wasn’t a difficult task.
With my increased inner energy, my sensing range had expanded.
I just needed to find Wulian’s presence.
But it was closer than expected
 and getting even closer.
“Young Master!”
A person in the Gou family’s martial uniform ran towards me from a distance.
Wulian was coming, somehow knowing I was here.
Wulian’s face showed both relief and reproach as he panted.
“Why
 Why did you go missing for so many days
!”
Wulian closed his mouth, having noticed the change in me. He looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“...Did something happen?”
I scratched my cheek, feeling embarrassed.
“I guess I had a bit of a stroke of luck
 How should I put it
?”
I was as surprised as Wulian.
I could sense it more clearly after reaching a new realm.
Wulian was a much more accomplished martial artist than I had thought.
‘...Crazy, he’s at the end of the first-class level at his age?’
I had heard that Wulian was just past his youth.
It was strange.
A martial artist with such talent had never been known until I died.
Even more strange, I didn’t know about him, despite him being from the Gou family.
What had happened to him?
“Sorry, I had some things to deal with.”
“No, no, you should have taken me with you. What if something happened to you, Young Master? Do you know how worried I was!?”
“Sorry, but look, nothing happened, right?”
Indeed, nothing had happened when I went to Bihao, and there were no issues.
But it was my fault for disappearing for three days without a word.
That aside, I had a question for Wulian.
“...But, tell me.”
“Yes
?”
“Can I ask you one thing?”
“Yes
 What would you like to ask
?”
“Why are there two more unnecessary presences?”
At the place where the Gou family members were gathered, there were two more presences that were absolutely unwelcome.
Wulian looked at me, not understanding what I meant.
“Didn’t you call them, Young Master?”
“Did I
 call them
?”
“They said you called them, so I
.”
I rubbed my face, feeling embarrassed by the situation.
From a distance, I could sense two familiar presences at the inn.
None other than Nangong Bia and Tang Xiaoyue.
Their presences were there.